[culcune]

Price is the big deal on the Honda, from what I can tell. On Horizonsunlimited, a guy from Canada had bought a Tornado in Mexico and had ridden it south and back north. He offered it for free (to use) for someone who wanted to start in Mexico and ride south where the Canadian owner could fly and ride it again. There are plenty of people who do such things, and if you read INTO the thread from the Peru expat I put here on this thread, Chinese bikes are going to become more popular for adventure travelers. Many people have gone the expensive route and bought KLRs, BMWs, etc. with the intent to sell them once they rode a long way, one way. They have planned to leave from a certain country. They then try to recoup the cost of their bike with someone starting out at the bottom (i.e. flew from Paris to Brazil) riding north.

The Canadian guy paid about what expat42451 said it listed it in Peru--$5k USD (maybe Canadian $ but close). He cannot take the bike into Canada since it is not certified. He did not want to lose $5k so quickly, and figured he will ride the heck out of it (I am not sure if he had ever tried to sell it). I offered to store it here in Yuma since Mexico is a hop, skip and jump from here, but he just PM's me the other week and said he has friends in Phoenix, but he is not sure which route he wants to take in Mexico/Central/South America. I did tell him to stop by if he comes through either of the nearby border crossings, regardless.

The other expat in Horizons I posted the link to who preps these bikes has a lot of interest. $2k for a relatively disposable bike is a lot more palatable than $5k. Rental bikes are a lot of money pretty much anywhere in the world, unless one is American and only has a few weeks of vacation to kill. Then, paying $60 or more a day is justified. However, many of these travelers have months to kill. Paying $2k or less can be justified when looked at as depreciation.